"Roeland M.J. Meyer" wrote:
I might suggest that it will end when our infrastructure gets out of the red. It may surprise many to know that the major infrastructure has been in the red from day-one. Volunteer services are on the debit-side of the ledger. Without some offsetting credits, the entire system is off-balance and potentially unstable.
Why does it not bother anyone that most of our top-level infrastructure is 1) Paid for, or subsidized, by USG/NSF funding
Where?
2) root-servers.net is strictly voluntary (and unpaid)
We will know that is a problem when we run out of volunteers. Until then, it must be a "good thing".
3) IANA has no detectable revenue stream
Hmmm, I seem to remember that the ISoc/IAB/IETF is funding its share.
4) The BIND-master (Vixie) has to go begging for funding (ISC)
This is a crying shame. But, I thought it was working out. Am I uninformed?
5) IETF is strictly voluntary.
Goodness gracious, a founding principle! You would prefer what, instead?
6) Generally insufficient financial support for the whole mess.
Why is that? In spite of all this, the system keep running. When they finally figure out that they actually have to take care of "brick and mortar" (you know, roof overhead and bread on the table) issues a bunch of whiners show up to complain.
WSimpson@UMich.edu Key fingerprint = 17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26 DD 0D B9 9B 6A 15 2C 32